The problem of flawed executions

❶On April 16, Zackariah Melcher committed a crime of killing his wife Christian Melcher, his son Jaiden Melcher and his unborn child.

Death Penalty Essay Examples

While there are many supporters of it, there is also a large amount of opposition. Currently, there are thirty-three states in which the death penalty is legal and seventeen states that have abolished it Death Penalty Information Center. I believe the death penalty should be legal throughout the nation. There are many reasons as to why I believe the death penalty should be legalized in all states, including deterrence, retribution, and morality; and because opposing arguments do not hold up, I will refute the ideas that the death penalty is unconstitutional, irrevocable mistakes are made, and that there is a disproportionality of race and income level.

The use of capital punishment greatly deters citizens from committing crimes such as murder. Ernest van den Haag, a professor at Fordham University, wrote about the issue of deterrence:. They fear most death deliberately inflicted by law and scheduled by the courts….

Hence, the threat of the death penalty may deter some murderers who otherwise might not have been deterred. And surely the death penalty is the only penalty that could deter prisoners already serving a life sentence and tempted to kill a guard, or offenders about to be arrested and facing a life sentence. This was due to other possible murderers being deterred from committing murder after realizing thatother criminals are executed for their crimes.

Capital punishment also acts as a deterrent for recidivism the rate at which previously convicted criminals return to committing crimes after being released ; if the criminal is executed he has no opportunity to commit crimes again. Some may argue that there is not enough concrete evidence to use deterrence as an argument for the death penalty.

The reason some evidence may be inconclusive is that the death penalty often takes a while to be carried out; some prisoners sit on death row for years before being executed. This can influence the effectiveness of deterrence because punishments that are carried out swiftly are better examples to others.

Although the death penalty is already effective at deterring possible criminals, it would be even more effective if the legal process were carried out more quickly instead of having inmates on death row for years. The death penalty also carries out retribution justly.

When someone commits a crime it disturbs the order of society; these crimes take away lives, peace, and liberties from society. Giving the death penalty as a punishment simply restores order to society and adequately punishes the criminal for his wrongdoing.

Retribution also serves justice for murder victims and their families. This lack of malice is proven in the simple definition of retribution: The death penalty puts the scales of justice back in balance after they were unfairly tipped towards the criminal. The morality of the death penalty has been hotly debated for many years.

Those opposed to the death penalty say that it is immoral for the government to take the life of a citizen under any circumstance. It is immoral to not properly punish a person who has committed such a horrendous crime.

The criminal is also executed humanely; in no way is he subjected to torture or any form of cruelty. All states that use the death penalty use lethal injection; the days of subjecting a prisoner to hanging or the electric chair are long gone in the US.

Inmates are first given a large dose of an anesthetic so they do not feel any pain Bosner ; this proves that the process is made as humane as possible so the inmates do not physically suffer. Although the issue of morality is very personal for many people, it is important to see the facts and realize that capital punishment does take morality into account and therefore is carried out in the best way possible.

The eighth amendment to the United States Constitution prevents cruel and unusual punishment. Many opponents of capital punishment say that execution is cruel and unusual punishment and therefore violates the Constitution. As was stated earlier, the recipient of the death penalty is treated humanely and is not tortured in any way, shape, or form. After the anesthetic is administered the person feels no pain; the only part of the process that could be considered painful is when the IV is inserted, but that is done in hospitals on a daily basis and no one is calling it unconstitutional.

The Supreme Court has repeatedly upheld the death penalty as constitutional in cases they have presided over. In the case of Furman v. The Supreme Court has not found capital punishment to be unconstitutional, and therefore this argument for abolition is invalid. Another argument put forth by death penalty abolitionists is the possibility of executing an innocent person.

Many people that argue this overestimate how often this happens, it is an extremely rare occurrence and has not happened since the death penalty was reintroduced in Mistakes will be made in any system which relies upon human testimony for proof.

We should be vigilant to uncover and avoid such mistakes. Our system of justice rightfully demands a higher standard for death penalty cases. Stewart points out that death penalty cases are held to a much higher standard. Due process in these cases takes much longer so that the court can be absolutely sure that the person is guilty before sentencing him to execution.

I think that if you kill someone you should be given the death penalty. I think that the death of the killer would give family and friends a bit of ease over the death. Also the death should not be prolonged and should be done immediate. By giving the death penalty to some one it is fair and very just to me. If you kill someone you deserve to die and not stay in. Electric chair, gas chamber, lethal injection, firing squad, hanging, guillotine, and garroting.

When you hear these words what do you think of? Do you feel frightened? When some hear these words they tend to say, " Oh they deserve it".

In the court system that is not always the case. The question you always have to ask yourself is what did the accused do and do they deserve the death penalty? There are five basic reasons that society uses when imposing "punishment" that I've been able to conclude from my readings.

I will discuss these societal concepts and show that the death penalty does not serve to further them. As a result William Smith should not be subject to the death penalty and in fact the same should be abolished from our system of "punishment".

Deterrence Deterrence is ba. The history of crime and punishment in England during the medieval period reveals that infliction of death penalty was commonly practiced for the elimination of criminals. Henry VIII who reigned in England for over fifty years, was particularly infamous for his brutality towards the condemned prisoners.

He used to boil the offenders alive. His daughter Queen Elizabeth who succeeded him, was far mo. It may be reiterated that capital punishment is undoubtedly against the notions of modern rehabilitative processes of treating the offenders.

It does not offer an opportunity to the offender to reform himself. That apart, on account of its irreversible nature, many innocent persons may suffer irredeemable harm if they are wrongly hanged. As a matter of policy, the act of taking another's life s. The pertinent issue which emerges from the foregoing discussion and the case law is how far the present law relating to capital punishment answers the need of the time and whether its scope needs to be extended, curtailed or it should be abolished altogether.

The proper approach to the problem, perhaps will be that capital punishment must be retained for incorrigible and hardened criminals but its. The history of human civilization reveals that during no period of time death penalty has been discarded as a mode of punishment. This finds support in the observation made by Sir Henry Maine who stated, "Roman Republic did not abolish death sentence though its non-use was primarily directed by the practice of self-banishment or exile and the procedure of quarrantine.

Available literature on capital punishment in United States testifies that in modern times the sentence of death is being sparingly used in that country.

This, however, does not mean that capital punishment is altogether abolished in United States. The retention of death penalty is still considered to be morally and legally just though it may be rarely carried into practice. The death penalty issue has always been one of the most important issues of the contemporary system of justice. Years ago the majority of the criminals were male over 20, but nowadays the situation has quite changed.

Not only grown-ups but also by children who are under 18 years old nowadays commit murders and other terrible crimes. Ordinarily, a young criminal is not applied the sam. Essay on Safeguards against possibility of Miscarriage of Justice due to irrevocability of Capital Punishment.

The safeguards provided under the law to eliminate any possibility of erroneous judgment regarding award of death sentence which may briefly be stated as follows: An appraisal of the administration of criminal justice of ancient times reveals that death penalty was commonly used in cases of heinous crimes.

However, there was great divergence as to the mode of its execution. The common modes of inflicting death sentence on the offender were fructification, drowning, burning, boiling, beheading, throwing before wild beasts, flaying or skinning off alive, hurl. The ancient law of crimes in India provided death sentence for quite a good number of offences. The Indian epics, viz. Opponents of capital punishment have basically four arguments. The first is that there is a possibility of error.

However, the chance that there might be an error is separate from the issue of whether the death penalty can be justified or not. If an error does occur, and an innocent person is executed, then the problem lies in the court system, not in the death penalty. Furthermore, most activities in our world, in which humans are involved, possess a possibility of injury or death. Construction, sports, driving, and air travel all offer the possibility of accidental death even though the highest levels of precautions are taken.

These activities continue to take place, and continue to occasionally take human lives, because we have all decided, as a society, that the advantages outweigh the unintended loss. We have also decided that the advantages of having dangerous murderers removed from our society outweigh the losses of the offender.

The second argument against capital punishment is that it is unfair in its administration. Statistics show that the poor and minorities are more likely to receive the death penalty.

Once again, this is a separate issue. However, this is yet another problem of our current court system. The racial and economic bias is not a valid argument against the death penalty.

It is an argument against the courts and their unfair system of sentencing. The third argument is actually a rebuttal to a claim made by some supporters of the death penalty. The claim is that the threat of capital punishment reduces violent crimes.

The fourth argument is that the length of stay on death row, with its endless appeals, delays, technicalities, and retrials, keep a person waiting for death for years on end.

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- The Death Penalty As a Form of Justice Around the World Introduction: The death penalty is a subject that has become very big in the 21st century. Many centuries ago the death penalty is something that was widely practiced in almost all cultures.

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An argumentative essay about death penalty. The death penalty is the ultimate punishment. There is no harsher punishment than death itself.

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This assignment instructed students to write a persuasive essay which argues for a specific viewpoint or a specific action to be taken on a societal issue. I argued for a specific stance to be taken on the issue of the death penalty. The audience for this essay is the opinion section of the. Example academic essay: The Death Penalty. This essay shows many important features which commonly appear in essays. Should the death penalty be restored in the UK? The restoration of the death penalty for serious crimes is an issue of debate in the UK because of the recent rise in violent crime.

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The death penalty takes focus away from the victims and focuses the attention on the criminal. These are just some of the reasons the death penalty should be removed. There are of course many more. Example Persuasive Paper on the Death Penalty Introduction Death penalty has been an inalienable part of human society and its legal system for centuries, regarded as a necessary deterrent to dangerous crimes and a way to liberate the community from dangerous criminals.